What can I do when a resident is violent against me the caregiver?

I work in a home that is understaffed and each person works ten hour shifts alone juggling the care of a dozen residents. There is one male resident who is full assist with everything & he seems to be angry about being assisted by an opposite-gender caregiver. And whenever I have to help him to bed or get him up he hits me which leaves bruises on him. I'm as nice to him as I possibly can be, even when I'm hurt and angry. His family is very suspicious of everyone and I'm afraid they'll try to get me fired. I document everything but have no witnesses since I'm alone. I don't know what to do.

Answers

Document it in the chart. Then send an email to your supervisor asking for help on handling this patient and cc or bcc your non-work email. That's about all you can do that will not result in being fired or escorted out in handcuffs.

I always feel a smidgen of sympathy for all those people who have been caught on camera lashing out against their care recipient, one that has stuck in my head shows a NH employee very roughly attempting to change the diaper of a woman who was repeatedly smacking her (the employee) about the head. I hope these are mostly isolated incidents when someone snapped (BTDT), but going to work and carrying on day after day with the kind of attitude that cak has expressed is a whole different ball of wax and in my opinion is amoral and criminal.

im sure it happens that staff abuse the elderly in retaliation Even in one ER a nurse grabbed my mom's wrists so hard I got up to intervene I also remember a woman working as a sitter in the hospital tell me her mother suffered a broken finger in a nursing home from staff grabbing her but by and large I've seen caregivers Jump back to avoid being scratched or hit and I've seen some pretty volatile demented situations in the past year

The problem with backhanding the patient results in the caregiver being charged with assault/abuse - and you can bet the patient would roll in front of the judge looking as vulnerable as possible...Guess who's going to look like the a**? Worse, who's going to leave without consequences?

OK, if I were a caregiver, and somebody beat up on me, I'd beat them right back! I'd back hand them and clock them upside their head! I also don't care about being fired, either; I'd blow the whistle on the d*mn joint!

My mom would get violent at times, but it was always connected to a urinary tract infection. That man may need to have his urine and blood drawn to check for an infection of some sort. In the meantime, refuse to enter his room alone. If that is impossible, turn your phone to record, and record the whole time you are in his room, sound and video.

It may be he is a woman-hater - there are some men like that - some because they dislike all women & some who think they are too good for a mere woman to take care of them - you can tell by family how he relates to women

My mother used to hit and slap the caregivers when they would push and shove her. Once I convinced them she was very hard of hearing and they absolutely must make her understand what they wanted from her before trying to manhandle her and they started doing that, she settled down and cooperated. Is it possible your patient is hard of hearing and just confused about what you are trying to do? If he has some sort of dementia, what makes sense to you or I, may not to him. Good luck.

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